This application relates to telecommunications systems, and in particular to a dynamically configurable architecture for mixed data processing and an associated technique for dynamically allocating telecommunications resources based on demand.
The hardware platform on which communications infrastructure, such as base stations and switch gateways, have traditionally been built includes a mix of microprocessors and digital signal processors. Microprocessors typically serve as system host and data router, performing control-oriented tasks, and interface to multiple DSPs. The DSPs are required to perform signal processing tasks such as speech compression, echo cancellation, fax processing, modem data pump functionality, and error correction. Communications infrastructure equipment must process a number of channels including a variety of data types to support system usage. Each channel or data stream may have unique processing requirements depending on its data type. For example, V.42 bis modem processing is control-processing intensive and places greater burden on the microprocessor than speech compression, which is completely signal processing oriented. Therefore, the ratio of signal processing resources to microprocessor resources is different depending on the channel type.
To process such diverse data streams, one technique has been to dedicate hardware and software resources for each channel or data stream in a communications system. This technique works best where the type of processing required is known a priori and does not change substantially. A typical system using this technique would have dedicated resources for speech data and dedicated resources for other data types.
The shortcoming of the dedicated hardware and software technique is that traffic patterns are not static, therefore resources and cost are not optimized. The number of voice calls versus the number of data calls does not remain constant over the course of time, such as a day. A need exists for a communications infrastructure that is flexible, can handle both signal processing and control processing functions dynamically, under software control and can be dynamically reconfigured to a configuration that corresponds to the demand.